Fusion and Plasma Physics Careers Day

Introduction to Fusion and Plasma Physics Careers 

Join the Department of Physics and the Plasma Physics Group for our Fusion and Plasma Physics Careers Day! This short introduction will outline the day’s programme, and the line up of talks from leading employers in the fusion and plasma physics sector. There will be plenty of opportunities to network during the coffee and lunch breaks. In the afternoon, explore employer stands to discuss current vacancies, future career opportunities, and developments in the field. You’ll also have the chance to speak with Yasmin Andrew and Robert Kingham, co-directors of the MSc in Physics with Fusion and Plasma Physics, to learn more about the course and pathways to employment and postgraduate study.

Biography

Dr Yasmin Andrew FInstP SFHEA is a Senior Teaching Fellow and Head of Student Experience in the Department of Physics at Imperial College London. She is the Co-Director of the MSc in Physics with Fusion and Plasma Physics, specializing in magnetic confinement fusion research with a focus on nonlinear plasma turbulence dynamics, self-organisation, and transport barrier evolution. Highly active in the international scientific community, Dr Andrew chairs the Institute of Physics Plasma Physics group, represents the UK on the IUPAP Commission on Plasma Physics (C16), and is an Editorial Board member for Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. Additionally, she directs the ICTP–IAEA Fusion School, driving global training and capacity building in fusion energy.

 Robert Kingham is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at Imperial, where is also Co-Director of the MSc in Physics with Fusion and Plasma Physics. He is a theoretical plasma physicist working for over 20 years in the areas of Laser-Plasma Interaction (LPI), Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF), High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) and more recently in Magnetic Confinement  Fusion (MCF). The main thread of his research has been kinetic theory and modelling of electron transport including coupling to magnetic-field dynamics.  He and his team have developed several kinetic and extended-MHD simulation codes including IMPACT and CTC to study this.  His other research interests include non-linear optics of laser propagation in plasma, instabilities and twisted light.  Since 2016, he has been increasingly working in the field of tokamak exhaust physics.  He is currently a Visiting Fellow at UKAEA and collaborates extensively with the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy.

Career Planning & You

In this session, Jess will offer a reminder of the support available from the Careers Service for final year and postgraduate students as well as walking you through how to use Plan:Me – a self-coaching tool to support decision making and action planning for your next career steps.

Biography

Jess Popplewell is the Careers Consultant for Physics at Imperial. She has previously delivered talks for the Institute of Physics and the Royce Institute at Manchester University, with a special focus on how physicists can tell effective stories of their experiences to future employers and potential funders.

Power Exhaust Physics and Integrated Scenario Design at Tokamak Energy

The first part of this talk surveys our group’s exhaust physics program on ST40, a high-field spherical tokamak. The programme is organized around three focus areas. The first is scrape-off-layer transport: how heat deposited in the core plasma is channelled through a narrow boundary layer toward the wall, and what sets the width of that layer, since a narrower layer concentrates heat onto a smaller area and makes it harder to handle. The second is power exhaust, where the goal is to remove some of the heat before it ever reaches a solid surface by radiating it away as. The third is plasma-material interactions, which concerns how the plasma impact the wall condition over time, and how coating the plasma facing surfaces with various materials affect the plasma performance. Taken together, these three areas trace a natural progression: understanding how heat is transported to the wall, reducing it before it arrives, and managing what remains.

In the second half, we turn to ST-E1, Tokamak Energy’s pilot power plant design, and address the question of how a fusion plasma can be brought to the burning state. In typical tokamak operations, the access to flat-top current is usually done through inductive current drive from the transformer action of the central solenoid, with heating power applied shortly before or after the flat-top current is reached. Because ST-E1’s compact geometry leaves little room for solenoid, the plasma current must instead be driven largely by external coils and auxiliary heating and current drive. We present time-dependent simulations of candidate ramp-up scenarios and discuss the main constraints in terms of coil flux availability and exhaust compatibility. Sensitivities to the various plasma physics assumptions, limitations of the current modelling capabilities, and critical open questions will be highlighted.

Biography

Laura Xin Zhang is a plasma physicist and team leader at Tokamak Energy, where she leads the Integrated Core–SOL–Divertor team. Her research spans scrape-off-layer transport, power exhaust, and plasma-material interactions on the ST40 high-field spherical tokamak, together with core-edge integrated modelling and scenario design for Tokamak Energy’s pilot power plant, ST-E1. She earned her Ph.D. in plasma physics from Princeton University, where she developed reduced-physics models for core-edge coupled simulations in tokamak plasmas. She collaborates with researchers across the US and UK on experimental characterization of current day devices and predictive modelling in support of the design of future tokamak reactors.

European Student Opportunities in Fusion Research

The EUROfusion Consortium coordinates fusion Research & Development as well as Training and Education activities across its 202 affiliated institutes, national laboratories, and universities in 29 countries in Europe supporting over 1000 students each year. The talk will cover study, travel opportunities, funding and resources for MSc and PhD students in Europe and internationally.    

Biography

Eva Belonohy is the Training and Education Manager of the EUROfusion Consortium and chair of the EUROfusion Operations Network.

Eva has a PhD in Physics from Eotvos University (Budapest, Hungary) and an MBA from the Imperial College Business School (London, UK). She has 15-years’ experience in tokamak operation with a full license to operate ASDEX Upgrade, MAST and JET as a physics pilot. During her 8-year in the European JET Operations Group, she supported the operational preparations of the JET campaigns, training and management of physics pilots and led the technical rehearsals for tritium operation. From 2019 she led the EUROfusion JT-60SA integrated commissioning team and from 2021 was the Operations Subproject Leader for the Preparation for ITER Operations EUROfusion work package, where she established the EUROfusion Operations Network.

Since 2023, Eva is the Training and Education Manager at the EUROfusion Consortium responsible for supporting Master and PhD students across 120 universities, the post-graduate EUROfusion Grants and the management of the EUROfusion Engineering Training Programme. She has authored the European Education Programs Overview, the EUROfusion Knowledge Management Strategy and the EUROfusion Human Resource Survey and Workforce Development Plan. Since 2020, Eva is the European scientific secretary and organizer of the JT-60SA International Fusion School merging engineering, physics, diagnostic and operational aspects of annually changing school themes. As a member of the EIROforum working group on Training and Career Development, she facilitates joint activities with the 9 largest research centers in Europe including CERN, ESA and ESO.

STEP: The science, technology, engineering and people required to deliver fusion energy

STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) is targeting 2040 to build a fusion pilot plant that will deliver net power to the grid, demonstrate fuel self-sufficiency and highlight the pathway to commercially relevant levels of availability. It is an innovative programme (in so many ways) in which the answers to some key science and technology questions remain uncertain, and therefore must be addressed through pioneering R&D integrated with the pilot plant design process. We will explore some of the research we are stimulating, and how we work with a range of partner organisations to deliver not only an optimal design for the prototype plant but also a skilled national fusion industry to take that design from paper to reality. Throughout the talk we will illustrate the kind of skills that will be required to deliver STEP. 

Biography

Howard Wilson graduated from University of Durham with a degree in Physics in 1985, and from University of Cambridge with a PhD in theoretical particle physics in 1988. He joined UKAEA’s Culham Division as a theoretical plasma physicist in 1988 researching a range of tokamak-related topics, from plasma instabilities to fusion power plant design.

In 2005 he was appointed as Professor of Plasma Physics at the University of York, where he established and led the York Plasma Institute and the Fusion Centre for Doctoral Training. In 2017 he was seconded part-time to UK Atomic Energy Authority, initially as Research Programme Director and then as the first (interim) Director for STEP, before returning full time to York in 2020. In 2023 he moved to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he was the Fusion Pilot Plant R&D Lead. In 2025, he moved back to the UK, joining UK Fusion Energy (at that time called UK Industrial Fusion Solutions – part of UKAEA Group) and the STEP programme, appointed as Director for Science and Technology.

ITER status and preparations for its scientific exploitation

The presentation will shortly introduce the ITER Project and its present status of construction. Then it will describe in more detail the plans for the various phases for its scientific exploitation and the required staff to support it in each phase. Finally, opportunities for early career scientists/engineers to join and/or engage in collaborations with the ITER Organization will be presented.

Biography

Alberto is the head of the Science Division at the ITER Organization and member of the European, Spanish and American Physical Societies and Fellow of the UK Institute of Physics and of the American Physical Society. He has been co-Chair of the Scrape-off Layer and Divertor Physics, Edge Plasma and Pedestal Physics and Transport and Confinement topical groups of the International Tokamak Physics Activities and secretary to the ITER Council Science and Technology Committee. He has also played a leading role in the development of the physics basis behind the design of the ITER tokamak and of the plans for its scientific exploitation (the ITER Research Plan).

Alberto carried out his PhD research at the Joint European Torus where he also completed his postdoctoral research. After that, Alberto joined the EFDA-Close Support Unit at the Max Planck Institut für Plasmaphysik in Garching, where he was responsible for the EFDA Technology Programme in the area of plasma-wall interactions for ITER. In 2008, he joined the ITER Organization Science Division. His research has focused on the characterization and control of stationary and transient wall power fluxes in tokamaks and on issues related to the integration of high core confinement plasmas with edge plasma requirements for power and particle exhaust.

Exhibiting company

First Light Fusion is a UK-based inertial fusion company developing a new approach to fusion energy known as FLARE – Fusion via Low-power Assembly and Rapid Excitation. Our work combines cutting-edge plasma physics, pulsed power, high-energy-density physics, target design, diagnostics, data-science, AI, simulation and engineering.

Based near Oxford, our multidisciplinary team develops and operates large-scale experimental facilities to explore the physics and technologies needed for future inertial fusion energy. We offer opportunities for physicists, engineers and scientists to work on challenging problems at the boundary between fundamental research and real-world technology development.

Exhibiting company

Magdrive is a UK-based spacecraft propulsion company developing next-generation electric plasma thrusters. Based at Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire, its team combines plasma physics, pulsed-power electronics and mechanical engineering to develop compact, high-thrust propulsion systems using solid metal propellant. Magdrive’s technology is designed to enable more agile spacecraft for applications including satellite servicing, in-space manufacturing and future deep-space missions.

Exhibiting company

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) is the UK’s national research organisation leading the development and commercialisation of nuclear fusion power . UKAEA hosts two experimental fusion devices: JET (which holds the record for fusion power and now in decommissioning) and MAST Upgrade . Our engineers and scientists work on the operation and maintenance of these reactors as well as the planning and design of future devices (such as ITER, DEMO, and STEP ), with partners around the globe.

UKAEA encompasses several facilities, including Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE), Hydrogen-3 Advanced Technology (H3AT), Materials Research Facility (MRF), and Remote Applications in Challenging Environments (RACE). CCFE is one of the world’s leading fusion research laboratories and operated the Joint European Torus (JET) on behalf of the EUROfusion research consortium, and MAST Upgrade, the UK’s national fusion experiment . The H3AT facility provides handling and storage facilities for tritium, a key fuel for fusion reactors. At MRF we perform research and development of materials required to withstand some of the most extreme conditions on the planet. UKAEA also has a strong presence in the field of robotics through RACE, a facility focused on remote handling techniques for a wide variety of applications, both within fusion and outside of it.

 Working together, these facilities make UKAEA a key part of the global effort to realise fusion energy and provide widespread clean energy. With two sites across the UK, one based at the Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire, and another at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Yorkshire , UKAEA is embedded in areas of scientific and technological innovation. Working at UKAEA allows one to take on a unique set of challenges while working towards a better future.

UKAEA are recruiting across a wide range of STEM backgrounds for a diverse set of roles. For more information on how to start your career with UKAEA, visit our website for details of summer placements, our graduate scheme, and more here:  https://ccfe.ukaea.uk/careers/early-careers/